Additions to the Soundscape! workshop blog and related things
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Friday, 21 September 2012

Kantele Making update

I have been a full time luthier for over 10 years now and have been making Kanteles since the start.
The main techniques of construction are fully shown in my Kantele Making CD-Rom. but there are a few differences in the finer points of making them that I wanted to share.

In the CD-ROM I suggested inserting hard maple or beech under the tuning pin holes, I now insert a whole strip of hard maple under the soundboard. These needs a 5 piece construction for the tuning/head section

It takes longer to build this way but it allows the free use of softer timber like spruce, alder or walnut and still safely use zither pins. Over time softer woods would wear down without the inserts.

It helps to plane all the timbers through a thicknesses, unlike the individual inserts that can be done by bench press drill

Note: I use miller dowels to secure the laminations of all pieces now, these are self gripping and makes gluing up si much simpler.

When we get to stringing I will show how to lay out the strings now on the finished instrument!